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Abstract/Description

As cities expand to cover farmland with roads and buildings, the conflict between traditional land rights, and modern systems of ownership and distribution become very clear. This report comes from Blantyre in Malawi, where city authorities now charge rent on land that was once freely owned.

Notes

Urban growth threatens ancestral lands
Cue:
As cities expand to cover farmland with roads and buildings, the conflict between traditional land rights, and modern systems of ownership and distribution, become particularly clear. In some cases, people living close to cities voluntarily give up their traditional rights by selling their land. Alternatively, traditional rights may be ignored by city authorities, who are under pressure to find new land to house the large numbers of migrants arriving from rural areas. Patrick Mphaka reports from Blantyre in southern Malawi, a country where, as he points out, seizure of ancestral land is nothing new.
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